HOW can a parcel just vanish into thin air?

This is the question posed by a Southampton man who claims a recorded delivery package bound for his home has been lost in the chaos of the current postal service crisis.

Clive Marks, of Church Lane, Highfield, was not at home when the mystery package arrived at his door.

So, responding to a note left by the postie, he diligently visited his nearest sorting office to pick it up.

"There it all started to go wrong," said Clive. "The people there just didn't know where it was.

"They said the postman had got back to the office after his round, found it shut and put the parcel back in the post because he's not allowed to take it home with him.

"Now it's completely vanished. I don't know who it was from or what was in it."

He tracked the parcel on the Royal Mail's website, but it said it had already been delivered - leaving Clive with no clue how to trace it further.

Royal Mail bosses say they have launched an investigation in a bid to find out what happened to Clive's parcel.

His story is just one of dozens of similar complaints that have surfaced since the Daily Echo first revealed the shambolic state of Hampshire's postal service.

Business leaders, postal workers and homeowners have all been hit by the management belt-tightening ex-ercise which has crippled deliveries.

The second daily delivery has been scrapped to create better working conditions for postmen, say bosses - but swathes of people contacting the Daily Echo say it has thrown the service into chaos.

Royal Mail chiefs deny that mail is stockpiling or being lost.

Spokesman Dan Panes has said: "As far as I'm aware there's no backlog. All items of mail are being delivered within the time frame."

He added: "This new system is saving £350m a year, all of which is going back to staff to increase their basic pay."

Have you been hit by the postal service crisis? What do you think about the state of the Royal Mail? Contact Claire Moriarty at the Daily Echo on 023 8042 4495 or e-mail her using the link above.